The Week that Was

I set the sewing machine up and made a new topper for a side table in the loungeroom

I set the sewing machine up to make some Christmas presents and while it was out I made a new topper for a side table in the loungeroom and some new doyleys to match - cost $0! The fabric was scrap furnishing fabric given to me a while ago by my cousin.

Our new budget has kicked in a little early. That means I have been vigilant in watching spending, petrol use, electricity and water use this week and tracking all our spending and stockpile use to make sure we are within budget; I don't want any nasty surprises :)

This past week I've been concentrating on finding the holes in the stockpile. All those things I/we use but not a lot of or not regularly. Things like bandaids, sunscreen, herbs and spices, yeast (how did I miss that one?), scrub buds, eucalyptus oil, baking powder, citric acid, gelatine - all essentials in my household but not used every day or even every week in some cases, so easily left off the shopping list.

Wayne reconnected the watering system he made for me so I can get just the plants watered too. He used recycled and hard rubbish bits to put it together last year so it has cost us nothing but it saves me time watering and being on a timer it will save water; it has little drip thingys over just the plants that need water so nothing wasted.

Gratefully accepted some beautiful bowls, sand, wax melts and plants to use for and in the terrariums Hannah is making for Christmas gifts. Thank you Ann :)

Fish bowls, succulents and mini biscuit jars, a lovely gift

I crushed more egg shells and sprinkled them around the plants to deter snails and slugs.

Planted more lettuce. Staggering planting gives a constant supply all summer.

Dried the washing on the line.

Collected water from the kitchen and bathrooms and tipped it into the washing machine.

Started watering the back grass with the grey water from the washing machine now the weather is warming up (we don't water grass otherwise).

Made breadcrumbs.

Dried carrots. One kilo of carrots, dehydrated, fits into a 500g jar.

Dehydrated carrots, 1 kilo down to this!

Went through my fabric and pattern stashes and have decided on gift ideas to make. Cut out and stitched some Christmas presents.

Recycled some shopping bags to use as gift bags. Recycled a couple of boxes to use as gift boxes.

Combined any errands with taking Hannah to the station to save on petrol.

Filled the car up on Tuesday using a 4c off docket.

Kept the windows, curtains and blinds closed on Monday and Tuesday when it was so hot to keep the house cool.

Cooked all our meals - breakfasts, lunches and dinners - from scratch at home this week, except for Thursday's lunch which was Mum's treat.

Spent $19 at Aldi to top up milk, cheese and bread, that's all we needed this week.

Made some cards using materials from the craft stash.

And that's about it. Just normal stuff that we do every day, without thinking, that helps us live debt free, cashed up and laughing.

Cath's Meal Plan 11 - 17 October 2015

Simple potato salad: steamed potato, mint, onion and dressing

With daylight saving and warm weather our meal plan is featuring easy summer meals. We are eating lots of salad and this week we'll be eating from the freezer.

The roast beef is done and already in gravy in the freezer.
The stuffed peppers are ready to cook.
The rissoles are cooked and in the freezer. They just need to be thawed and perhaps heated.
The Yorkshire Meat Pancakes are cooked and in the freezer. They will need to be thawed and then heated on Wednesday.
The quiche for Friday is in the freezer. I'll take it out Thursday morning and let it thaw in the fridge.

Five out of seven dinners are already done - I just love weeks like this.

I'll make a large coleslaw, a large potato salad and a large pasta salad on Monday, but won't dress the coleslaw because it will go soggy. I'll dress it each night just before it is dished up.

I will dress the potato and pasta salads - they just get better with sitting. If I think they're a little dry when I go to dish them up I might add a little more dressing that has been thinned with either a little milk (for the potato salad) or a little vinegar (for the pasta salad).

Those three salads will keep, covered in the fridge for three days and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be really easy dinners.

This is what we'll be eating this week:

Sunday: Roast beef, baked veggies, broccoli, carrots, gravy

Monday: Stuffed peppers and salad

Tuesday: Salmon and potato rissoles and salad

Wednesday: Yorkshire Meat Pancakes and salad

Thursday: MOO Pizza

Friday: Tomato & onion quiche, salads

Saturday: Baked bean tacos

Loyalty Cards Make Great Bookmarks

 

The one thing that is sure to drive me crazy is being offered a loyalty card. Everyone has them, from the coffee shop to the chemist to dress shops, shoe shops, hairdressers, supermarkets, even our local butcher has one. So does our local carwash. And the newsagent. Even takeaway food places have loyalty cards.

They give them away, free of charge, when you make a purchase. Get the card stamped X number of times and you can get a free whatever...or spend X amount of dollars and you can get a voucher for...wait for it...$5! to be spent in their store, of course. They never seem to want to give you the $5 in cash! These cards are a supposed reward for you, the loyal customer.

In actual fact they are a nuisance. How many do you have in your purse, wallet or handbag right now? They are annoying, you can never find the one you need when you get to the checkout. You need to spend time searching for it, only to miss out on getting the points because you only spent $9.98, and you need to spend at least $10 to collect any points.

These horrible little cards are promoted as a special bonus for you, the card carrying shopper because when you have a card you are entitled to great member only deals. If they really wanted to repay your loyalty, you wouldn't need a card and the great deals would be available to everyone. If you shop at many different stores you no doubt will have lots of these annoying little cards, one for each store you visit.

Don't be fooled: there is nothing special about these cards. Anyone can get one, you just need to say yes when it's offered to you.

You don't need to be loyal to the store just because the checkout operator gave you a silly little card to stuff into your purse. Pick cards you accept, preferably for stores you frequent regularly and then you'll be sure to use them and really reap the rewards, without carrying dozens of plastic cards all tempting you to spend more money.

Freezer Liner Keeps Things Tidy

I love anything that will keep my freezer tidy and organized. I've written about how I use bags to keep things sorted here. And then there is this tip from Cheapskater Irene - and it is a beauty! It really works and it is one of my favourite freezer tips.

You don't need a lot of bubblewrap to cover the bottom of a freezer so before you have fun popping those little bubbles, cut some off your next lot of bubblewrap packaging to use in your freezer.

Freezer Liner Keeps Things Tidy

Save large pieces of bubble wrap to line the bottom of your chest freezer. Frozen goods do not stick to bottom of freezer. This enables you to turn and shift things around with ease. Also good for separating goods once frozen.

Foolproof Christmas Pudding

We were talking about Christmas puddings at the last card making day and this recipe was mentioned, then Maureen emailed to ask for it. I thought I'd start the Christmas baking season off by sharing it with you too.

This Christmas pudding recipe was contributed to the Cheapskates Club Recipe File by Cheapskater Pamela G and it has been a hit ever since.  I featured it on the $25 and $80 Christmas Dinners tip sheet back in 2011, it's been featured on A Current Affair and we eat it regularly. Wayne just loves Christmas pudding and this one is so quick and easy (and cheap) it has become one of our favourite winter desserts.

Since I've been charged with organising our family Christmas this has also been my go-to recipe for a yummy, steamed Christmas pud, and everyone loves it.

Foolproof Christmas Pudding 

Ingredients:
2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
2 tbsp butter
2 cups mixed dried fruit
1 tsp bicarb soda
1-1/2 cups boiling water

Method:
Put flour, sugar, spice and fruit in mixing bowl.  Dissolve bicarb soda in boiling water, add butter
and stir to melt, then pour over other ingredients and stir well. Put mixture in well-greased 6 cup pudding basin, cover with greased paper and foil, and then tie down. Stand overnight. Next day place in saucepan of simmering water and cook 3-1/2 hours, topping up water as necessary. Do not allow the pot to boil dry.

Note:  Butter the pudding basin well and line the base with two layers of baking paper cut to fit.
When the pudding is cooked, turn out of the pudding basin. Wash the basin, butter and return pudding to basin until ready to serve. This will stop the pudding from sticking to the basin when it cools.

There is no alcohol in this recipe to act as a preservative so I keep this pudding wrapped in baking paper and then foil, in the bowl, in the fridge until I want to use it. Then I just slice it and warm it in the microwave. Alternatively you could steam it again, as per the cooking instructions, for about two hours. The microwave heating is easier for me and it doesn't heat up the house, always an issue for an Aussie Christmas.

I use Aldi flour, sugar, butter and dried fruit. My spices I buy from Hindustan Imports.

The fruit can be soaked overnight in brandy if you like, then follow the recipe.

I can make this pudding for $2.70 and cut it into 12 serves, making each serve just 22 cents.

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Slice

Just perfect for this mini summer (that's what the BOM is calling this heatwave), this no bake slice is quick to make and tastes so good chilled and straight from the fridge.

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter  Slice

Ingredients:
1 pkt Anzac biscuits (or 200g homemade)
125g butter
375g milk chocolate
150g smooth peanut butter

Method:
Line a slice tray with baking paper. Roughly crush Anzac biscuits with a rolling pin. Place butter, broken chocolate and peanut butter in a microwave safe dish and cook on high 1 minute. Stir to combine. Continue cooking in 30 second bursts, stirring well between each one, until everything is melted and well combined. Stir in the crushed biscuits  Pour into a lamington tray lined with baking paper and place into the fridge for 30 minutes to set. Cut into small slices to serve.

I used to use Aldi ANZAC biscuits if I didn't have any homemade, but they've been discontinued. Butternut Snaps make a good substitute.

To keep the cost of this slice down I use biscuit crumbs I've saved in a Tupperware container in the freezer. I just empty the crumbs from the bottom of the biscuit jar into the container each time it is refilled. When the container is full the crumbs are ready to be used in slices or as a biscuit base. This means the slice is slightly different every time it's made, but it is always good.

I use choc melts bought on sale when they are half price.. I usually buy enough to last a year when they are $2.50 or less a packet.

The butter and peanut butter are from Aldi.

Double the biscuit crumbs (400g or two packets of biscuits) and then divide the mixture in half to double the recipe without compromising the flavour of the slice.

I keep this slice in the freezer, it's easier to cut frozen and it lasts longer in our house if it is out of sight.

The Week that Was

This last week has been up and down, or rather there have been busy days and not so busy days. I had a lovely day on Tuesday when Wendy came to visit, bearing gifts! She's made the boys so happy with her gift of chips and snacks that I only buy occasionally. They've been put away for Christmas, New Year and Australia Day - here's hoping I can keep them put away because they know they're there :)

Cut out some Christmas presents. Did them in a production line system. I'll sew them up this week using the same production line method and get them all done in a jiffy - that's the plan anyway. I'm doing up some tutorials on these gifts to post later.

Dried the bread crusts on the cake racks overnight then whizzed them to make breadcrumbs.

Made a double batch of KFC Mix, ready for summer chicken schnitzels, strips and drumsticks. I save the crumbs from cereal packets, cracker boxes and so on to add to this mix rather than using good crackers - each batch is slightly different but always good. I save the liners from cereal packets too - they make great go-between in the freezer.

Recycled some gift wrap and tissue from bunches of flowers to wrap a gift. Ironing the paper on the wrong side with a cool iron brought it back to perfect condition.

Made a birthday card, a thank you card and a get well card using materials from the craft/card stash.

Caught the water from the kitchen sink and showers and used it to water the pot plants and top up the washing machine.

Dried the washing outside all week.

The heater has been off all week.

Gave in and put snail bait down in the zucchini bed. How is this frugal? The few pellets I sprinkled around cost a fraction of new plants, even if I grow them from seed. Started seeds for six more plants to replace the ones that have been decimated by bugs/slugs/snails/possums/birds/whatever it is.

Bought 10kg brown onions for $2. Spent 2 hours peeling, dicing and slicing and then put them through the dehydrator. Packed them into empty pasta sauce jars and into the pantry they've gone). I only used dried onion for spag bol, casseroles and rissoles so that's well and truly enough to last a year.

Gave the veggie garden and fruit trees a drink of worm tea from the worm farm to perk them up during this unexpected heatwave. Fed the worms with veggie peelings all week and added egg shells to the compost. Emptied the vacuum cleaner canister into the compost.

Found a lump of sausage meat in the freezer and used it to make sausage rolls for lunch Saturday and Sunday.

With the warmer weather I've been making Overnight Ginger Beer, using frozen lemon juice from the freezer. Icy cold ginger beer is my favourite hot weather treat and this recipe makes a 2 litre bottle for around 35 cents - much cheaper than even the cheapest generic soft drink (and nicer too).

As the oven was on for the sausage rolls I made double batches Cranberry Hootycreeks, choc chip biscuits and Lunchbox Cookies. Cooked half a batch of each, rolled the remaining dough into logs and froze it.

Tidied up another kitchen cupboard and dropped some glasses we don't use and an odd plate to the op shop.

Knitted some dishcloths using yarn I had to add to the cleaning hampers. I get 8 dishcloths from one ball of yarn so they cost around $2 each to knit.

And there are no photos because as I pulled the SD card out of my camera I broke it! The little metal thingys twisted and pulled off. AJ is away until tomorrow so hopefully he'll be able to fix it for me or at least retrieve this week's photos.

Keeping your pretty things for good

Please use your good things. There has been a bit of a conversation going on in the Member's forum about keeping things for good.

You don't have to use them everyday but you can make "special occasions" any time.

I use my crazy tea set at least once a week, even if I'm the only one drinking tea from one of the very pretty cups.

I serve afternoon tea or supper on nice plates.

We have our roast dinner every Sunday off my best china, using the good cutlery and crystal glassware. Desserts are always served in my prettiest dessert bowls. The table is set using the nicest tablecloth and we use cloth serviettes (although I use cloth serviettes anyway, much cheaper and nicer than paper).

I smile every time I put a prettily trimmed face washer or hand towel in the bathroom.

Seeing a bunch of flowers in my (one and only) Waterford crystal dish just makes my heart sing.

Think of it this way: they are things you love, that make you smile, and they are special to you for whatever reason (wedding present, 21st birthday, anniversary, inherited from a loved relative, given with love from the children and so on) and you want to keep them nice for the memory.

But what memories would you have if they were stolen? Lost in a fire or flood? Destroyed by silverfish (in the case of lovely linens)?

I know I'd be devastated, much more so than if I'd worn them out or accidentally dropped a cup or saucer and broken it. I'd rather use my lovely things often and have many memories than lose them and have only one - of them sitting on the shelf in the cupboard.

Cath's Meal Plan 4th - 10th October

When daylight saving starts I do a little happy dance (in my head - I would never traumatise you by actually dancing) and not just because I love the lighter evenings. No, my favourite part of daylight saving is that Wayne takes over the cooking, or most of it, on the barbecue.

It makes me smile to know that most of what we'll be eating for the next five months will be cooked outside, leaving the cooktop and oven clean. Oh joy, oh bliss! No more cleaning cooking messes for the summer!

Of course that means that I need to adjust the meal plan to meals that are easily cooked on the barbecue or on the rotisserie, and you'll see that reflected in future meal plans for the summer.

This week's menu has four meals that will be cooked on the barbecue: the Sunday roast, Tuesday's stuffed drumsticks, the mini meatloaves and the Thursday night pizzas.

This week we will be eating:

Sunday: Roast Lamb, baked vegetables, broccoli, gravy and mint sauce

Monday: Wellington Loaf, mash, veggies

Tuesday: Stuffed drumsticks, baked veggies

Wednesday: Mini meatloaves and salad

Thursday: MOO Pizza

Friday: Fish'n'Chips, coleslaw

Saturday: Sausage rolls and salad

Grocery (or any) Shopper Beware

I harp on a bit about how it is vital to know how much your shopping is going to cost before you get to the register and to check your dockets and receipts before you leave the store.

Those two points have been reinforced in my mind twice this week as I've been shopping and buying to add to the pantry and our stockpile.

I was shopping at Coles and in amongst the items I bought there were three items I'd been overcharged on, and to make it a little more absurd I'd been charged twice, but two different prices for one of those items - so four mistakes, totalling almost $20. I was in a hurry and didn't check the docket until I was at home and trying to work out why my figures didn't add up.

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when I figured out what had happened. Laugh because my figures would have been correct without the supermarket's mistakes or cry at my stupidity in not checking before I left the store, because that involved going back, with the goods and the receipt and waiting for it all to be worked out in-store so a refund could be processed.

Then yesterday I was shopping in an Aldi store and a discounted item I bought (don't you just love the Aldi discounts?) scanned at full price of $29.95 instead of the discounted price of $5. Kudos to the young man on the register, he picked it up straight away and fixed it immediately, so no loss of money, time or energy there.

These two events have had me thinking: if just one item on every second shop was scanned at a higher price, and the customer didn't pick it up, in every store of all three major supermarkets, every day of every year, how much would our mistakes be adding to their profits? Because they all make a profit, and now I'm thinking that lack of diligence by yours truly  and other customers is adding to it.

So I apologise in advance for holding you up if you are behind me at the checkout in the future, but Wayne and I work far too hard for our money to glibly make an involuntary donation to any supermarket's profits.  I choose to keep my money in my purse, and my profits in my bank account.

In the future I will be double checking the price of every item I buy as it is scanned and picking up any errors straight away, and I suggest you do the same.

Free Canisters

Storage containers are big business - have you seen the price of canisters and boxes and baskets lately? I'm the first to admit that I just love my Tupperware, BUT, and it's a big but, I've never paid full price for any of it, and most of it is over 30 years old (already!).

These days though, Tupperware just doesn't fit my budget so I'm always looking for alternatives, especially free alternatives. Brenda's suggestion of using formula tins isn't new, but it is a timely reminder that when we think creatively we can almost always find a solution to our problem.

Free Canisters
Whilst organizing my pantry I realized I needed more storage containers. Looking around the kitchen I noticed my baby's formula sitting on the bench. As I have a 4 month old daughter I have quite a few empty formula cans with lids. Being a little creative I sprayed them with paint in my favourite colour and put labels on them and now have cheap canisters for my pantry.  The canisters contain packets of salt, breadcrumbs, custard powder etc. Looking around the house I have now used them in the laundry for pegs etc. You can paint them all different colours and use them for hundreds of uses like buttons, screws, Lego or children's toys. This has saved me about $8 - $10 for a container of a similar size so depending on how many you make you can save a lot of a money.
Contributed by Brenda Buckley

If you'd like to see some truly beautiful "formula tin canisters" visit The Bluebirds are Nesting. Annabel has done a lovely post on this very subject.

A $75 a Week Meal Plan

We Armstrong's like our food. We eat well, with lots of variety in our meals (unless it's Thursday and then it's always pizza night!). So, when a journalist called me late yesterday afternoon and asked me for a meal plan for the $300 a Month Food Challenge I wasn't fazed at all.

The hard part was choosing which meal plans to send to them. Then they asked for a complete meal plan - breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. And they needed it right away.

Every month I do a meal plan, or rather a dinner plan, for my family (I share it in the Member's Centre). I'm sure I've told you before how Tom loves to look at the fridge and know what he'll be eating for tea (and how he stirs me when I change it on him :) ). We all do.  It's reassuring to me to be able to glance at the fridge and just know what I need to prepare for tonight, tomorrow, next week - the rest of the year actually, because I've done the meal plan right up to 31st December 2015, and it's on the fridge.

What that meal plan also does is help to keep our grocery bill low; really, really low. I budget $320 a month for groceries. Now some months I am on budget, some months I might be under by a few dollars and occasionally I go over. But at the end of the year, when I tally up the grocery tracking sheets, I always average $320 a month for groceries - we don't have the money to go over budget. Right now I'm using my grocery budget to build our grocery stockpile for the changes we're facing next year.

Well it took me 20 minutes to put it together for them, but I was able to come up with a meal plan that included three meals and a snack every day for a week. And bring it in under $75.

That was the tricky part. I'm used to working on a monthly meal plan and a monthly budget. That means I can share ingredients across a few meals, spreading the cost over the month. I couldn't do this for just a week so I had to choose cheap, nutritious meals and not go over the $75.

Here's the meal plan I came up with, it's plain, simple food. No frills or gourmet delights but it fills tummies, is reasonably healthful and very cheap.

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Breakfast	Pancakes & Syrup	Weetbix & Milk,  1/2 sliced banana	Boiled egg, toast, fruit & yoghurt	Weetbix & Milk, sliced peaches	Boiled egg, toast, fruit & yoghurt	Weetbix & Milk,  sliced peaches	Baked beans on toast, fruit & yoghurt
Morning Tea	Muffin, milk	Trail Mix	Carrot & celery sticks, dip	Trail Mix	Carrot & celery sticks, dip	Trail Mix	Muffin, milk
Lunch	Toasted cheese sandwiches	Chicken salad sandwich,  carrot sticks, dip	Sausage rolls, muffin, apple	salad wrap, mandarin, Lunchbox Cookie	Cheese & Vegemite sandwiches, mandarin, muffin	Egg sandwich, apple,  yoghurt	Salad sandwiches
Afternoon Tea	ANZAC slice, milk	Pita chips, dip	Pita chips, dip	Pita chips, dip	Pita chips, dip	Pita chips, dip	Chocolate cupcakes, milk
Dinner	Roast chicken, baked potato, peas, corn, carrots, gravy	Rissoles, mash, peas, corn, carrots, gravy, apple sponge, cream	Spag bol, salad, Tinned fruit & custard	Grilled sausages, potato bake, peas, corn, carrots	MOO Pizza & garlic bread, Fruit & jelly	Tuna Casserole,  green salad, wedges	Tacos

This meal plan will feed a family of four for a week for $75. It will depend of course on:

1. Brands - always choose the cheapest, usually a generic, but not always. And sometimes a special isn't really a special - always check the unit price.

2. Portion control - remember if a recipe serves six, get six serves. Put the two spare into the freezer for freezer meals - they are free dinners and will really help keep your grocery budget low.

3. Cook from scratch - no buying pre-prepared or packaged or convenience meals or parts of meals. MOO yoghurt, muffins, biscuits, pastry for the sausage rolls, dip, pita chips, gravy, wedges, pancakes and pancake syrup. 

4. Making a shopping list, after doing a fridge, freezer and pantry check, only adding the ingredients you need to buy. If you only need 5 apples, buy just 5 apples, don't spend money on food you don't need.

5. Sticking to the list. If it's not on the list, you don't buy it. If you think you'll need it, find a substitute in the ingredients you already have.

6. Shop around - you won't find any one store with the lowest prices on everything. Be prepared to shop at a couple of different food stores/butchers/green grocers.

Rolled Oats Chocolate Cake

Rolled Oats Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp baking power
1 tsp bicarb soda

Method:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Mix rolled oats with 1 cup boiling water. Set aside, let cool. Cream together butter and sugar, add eggs, add remaining ingredients and rolled oats mixture. Blend well. Bake for 30 minutes in a greased and lined 20cm square cake tin.  Cool, ice with a chocolate icing. This is a very moist and delicious chocolate cake.

From the September 2010 Cheapskates Journal

How to Strike Lavender for Free Plants

My lavender is in full bloom, but I need more plants. I asked my father-in-law to raid the lavender garden and bring me a few cuttings - he brought me half the garden, I'm sure. Then Maureen kindly left some cuttings after the card making afternoon last week - my lavender needs, wants and dreams have been fulfilled!

I love lavender for it's beautiful scent but it also has wonderful medicinal properties and is such a hardy plant for the garden, needing very little water and loving full sun, just perfect for our north facing front garden.

I'm planning on harvesting the flowers to use in lavender water, sachets, soaps and to make flavoured sugar. I can't wait!

How to Strike Lavender Plants

Lavender is very easy to propagate, meaning you may never have to buy another plant if you follow these simple steps.

Step 1. Cut a stem of lavender about 10cm - 15cm (4 - 6 inches) long. Make sure it doesn't have any flowers on it and is still soft and flexible - you don't want any old, woody stems.

Step 2. Remove the leaves from the lower two-thirds of the stem. I do this by gently running my fingers down the stem - it's faster than pulling them off one-by-one.

Step 3. Plant the cutting into seed raising mix or a good quality potting mix or rich garden soil - whatever you have on hand. Make sure the container has good drainage. I use toilet roll planters as these can be put straight into the garden when the cutting is ready to be transplanted.

Step 4. Keep the cutting moist and in a sunny window. It will be ready to go into the garden in about 4 - 6 weeks. You'll see new growth, the sign it is ready to transplant. If you've used the toilet roll planters just dig a hole the depth of the roll and plant. Easy!

Keep the cuttings moist but not drowning in water their first summer in the garden so they establish a good, strong plant.

Expect to be cutting flowers from your free lavender plants next summer.

The Week that Was

Fruit and veg prices just lately have been rock bottom. This week I was able to buy broccoli for 49 cents a kilo (22 cents a pound for US readers). I can't remember the last time broccoli was that cheap. I don't have any in the garden at the moment and we just love the stuff, so I spent Wednesday morning blanching and packing meal sized portions, then ran them over to Mum's during the afternoon. My freezer is still full to overflowing, and Mum's is getting pretty full, I may need to investigate other methods of preserving for any other great bargains.

Potted up some more flower cuttings for the garden. It will be full and beautiful when they all start growing and blooming.

Some succulent cuttings in a pot of fine soil and seed raising mix - these will be made into gifts by Hannah

The rain was a blessing and I happily  let it water the garden for me.

Let the fire go out and kept the ducted heating off on a couple of days. Lit the fire for a couple of cold days, we're down to the dregs of the firewood so I'm hoping any really cold days are now behind us and we'll have enough wood to see us through the odd cold snap.

Collected the water from the kitchen and showers and used it to top up the washing machine and the floor bucket.

Swapped the meal plan around (again) to use up some chicken that was thawed but not all cooked.  Made Sweet'n'Sour Chicken at Hannah's request. Froze the leftovers for a freezer meal.

Bought four tubs to store bulk rice and flour in the laundry. $7 each, they hold 20 kilos of flour and 15 of rice and stack neatly in the space I had.

Used my piggy bank money to stock up on some card making supplies at a fraction of the RRP. Kaisercraft printed papers for 50 cents  and  58 cents a double-sided sheet,  plain cardstock and papers 12 sheets for $5 (41 cents a sheet) and packs of 12 themed papers for $2.99, making them 24 cents a sheet. One sheet alone will embellish at least 15 cards.

Made a double batch of 5 Minute Choc Chip Cookies, some for us (and they were gone in 3 minutes!) and some as a thank you.

Made Simple Banana Cake for the freezer to use up some squishy bananas in the fruit bowl. Doubled the recipe and made it in my really big loaf tin. Cut into slices, wrapped and frozen for lunches or morning/afternoon tea. Cost: $1.05!

 Simple Banana Cake

Used a MOO cake mix to make 40 cupcakes. Some in the cake tin, the rest in the freezer for lunches or morning/afternoon teas. This cake mix costs around $2 to make, so the cupcakes are 5 cents each (un-iced).

MOO cake mix - cheaper and nicer than anything you can buy

Took an order for three cleaning hampers for Christmas, the money is a welcome boost to the slush fund.

Went to a closing down/clearance sale with Hannah, met PamelaG there. Bought a stamp pad for $1 and a very pretty paper pack for $3. But the bargain of the day, and one I can cross off my wish/Christmas/Birthday list: a Cuttlebug embossing and die cutting machine, with four folders and a pack of dies for the grand total of $25! I'm still smiling, and so is Wayne - he doesn't have to go shopping now :)

My embossing machine bargain!

Naomi, the lovely young woman who ran the sale also gave us a HUGE box of off cuts, ribbons, laces, papers, cardstock to use to make cards for charity. What a blessing! And guess what we'll be doing at our November card day ;)

Made a set of four cards in a folder to add to some embroidered hankies for a birthday gift. Total cost under $4.

Planted out some egg plants and capsicums. The garden is starting to look better now it actually has some plants in it.

Crushed egg shell around a little zucchini plant - hopefully it will stop the pest in their tracks :)

Scattered crushed egg shells around the beans and zucchini - something is eating them. Hopefully this will deter them.

Spent a lot of time working on the new Cheapskates website. It is so close to being finished, I just want it all done NOW!

Cath's Meal Plan 27th September - 3rd October 2015

I've been so grateful for a meal plan this week. It has been particularly busy, and some days I haven't had time to even think about dinner, let alone decide what to cook.

The meal plan is on the fridge, and everyone can check it. This week I've been able to leave meal prep to my family, secure in the knowledge that they would know what to cook by checking the meal plan. And that is what happened.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I was flat chat, but we were still able to eat healthy, cheap, home cooked meals thanks to that meal plan.

This week we will be eating:

Sunday: Roast Chicken, baked potato and pumpkin, broccoli, onion, corn

Monday: Steak and veggies

Tuesday: Porcupines, sweet potato mash

Wednesday: Chicken in Plum Sauce, rice

Thursday: MOO Pizza

Friday: Kransky, hot  potato salad

Saturday: Corned beef pie and MOO wedges

How to Build your Stockpile Part 4

I'm going to wind up this series this week (officially, I'll keep writing about our stockpiling journey and how we are living off it) with a summary of things I've covered this month to help you build your stockpile.

Build up a slush fund

A grocery slush fund is the way you can build your stockpile without going over your allocated grocery money or going into debt. Every week, fortnight or month when you draw your grocery money, do your shopping. Then take whatever is left and put it in the grocery slush fund.  You can then use this money to buy up extra of your basic items or to buy up when items you use regularly come on a good sale.

Buy up loss leaders

Supermarkets entice you into the store by offering a few items at ridiculously cheap prices (the Tim Tams on sale for $1.49 a packet at Woolworths a few weeks ago spring to mind). These items are generally on the front page of the brochures and can be seasonal. So when diced tomatoes are on sale two cans for a dollar, use your slush fund to fill your pantry until the next sale.

Figure out your storage possibilities ahead of time

Even if you live in a small flat, you can find unused space for storage. In a box under a bed is a good spot, for example. Throw a cloth over a coffee or end table and use the space under to hide your stockpile.

Invest in a freezer

This is the single best thing a stockpiler can buy. Our first chest freezer cost just $50 secondhand and it lasted us for over 10 years and saved us thousands of dollars before it decided to stop working. Meat, vegetables, fruits, bread, butter, even milk can all be frozen for months. You can also store your dry goods such as flour, pasta, cereals and dried fruit in the freezer if you have room. Make double or triple batches of biscuit dough or an extra casserole to freeze and you won't be running to the fish'n'chip shop for takeaway when you are tired.

Shop in bulk

I have always shopped in bulk. I buy lamb and beef in bulk, chicken pieces and fillets in 20kg lots, whole chickens by the box (usually 6 to a box).  Fresh meat, produce, cases of canned goods, flour,  sugar, cereals, toilet paper, toothbrushes, toiletries and nappies are usually good deals. Watch prices on frozen convenience foods and non-food merchandise. Resist the 12 dozen tins of smoked oysters for 20c a tin if you only use a half a tin once a year on New Years Eve. There is no saving in buying that many of anything, no matter how cheap it is if you aren't going to use it in a timely manner (that means before the best before or use by or it just gets old and stale). It will just become an expensive waste of space.

Be selective 

Don't stockpile a carton of instant coffee if no one in your family will drink it.  See above: expensive waste of space.

Donate any excess

Never has my family ever become bored with something I stockpiled, but we do like to share our bounty with others. Older family members, friends and neighbours will be especially grateful when you show up with a smile and those extra staples and treats for them.

Passionfruit Butter

Passionfruit are in season and if you don't have a vine, quite cheap at the moment. I've been buying them for $2 a kilo and eating them fresh and freezing the pulp to use later. I love them on that Australian afternoon tea favourite, Passionfruit Sponge, and they're good made into Passionfruit Butter to have on toast, pancakes, scones, in crepes, as the filling for surprise cupcakes or just to eat by the spoonful from the jar when no one is looking :)

Passionfruit Butter 

Ingredients
pulp of 5 large passionfruit
150g butter
100g caster sugar
juice of half a lemon
5 eggs

Method:
Prepare a double boiler with water and bring to the boil or, if you don't have a double boiler, place a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn't touching the water. Bring water to the boil over a medium heat. Turn heat down to medium-low.

Add butter and sugar to bowl and melt. Add lemon juice and passionfruit pulp. Mix well.
In a bowl, whisk all 5 eggs lightly. Add to butter mixture, whisking in with a whisk.

Stir continuously with a wooden spoon until mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon (about the consistency of thickened cream). This takes about 10 minutes over a medium heat.

Remove from heat. Pour into hot, sterilised jars. Seal while hot.

Store in fridge for up to two weeks.